ECW Tag Team Championship
The Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) World Tag Team Championship was a professional wrestling world tag team championship in Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW). It was introduced in National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) affiliate and ECW precursor, Eastern Championship Wrestling in 1992 but was established under ECW in 1994. History The ECW World Tag Team Championship was introduced on June 23, 1992 under Eastern Championship Wrestling, the precursor to ECW as the Eastern Championship Wrestling Tag Team Championship. This was during the time Eastern Championship Wrestling was a subsidiary of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), a promotion that has numerous subsidiaries. In September 1994, Eastern Championship Wrestling seceded from the National Wrestling Alliance, and became Extreme Championship Wrestling. The title was then established as a world tag team championship and became known as the Extreme Championship Wrestling World Tag Team Championship. The title continued to be defended within the promotion until April 2001, when ECW closed down. ECW's assets were subsequently purchased by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). Recomition By 2005, WWE began reintroducing ECW through content from the ECW video library and a series of books, which included the release of The Rise and Fall of ECW documentary. With heightened and rejuvenated interest in the ECW franchise, WWE organized ECW One Night Stand on June 12, a reunion event that featured ECW alumni. Due to the financial and critical success of the production, WWE attempted to relaunch the ECW franchise on April 4, 2006 as a third WWE brand, complementary to Raw and SmackDown!. The show failed, but was later brought back on May 30, this time to much better success. On May 30, Paul Heyman, former ECW owner and newly appointed figurehead for the ''ECW'' brand, recommissioned the ECW World Tag Team Championship to be the brand's tag titles. The Refugees (Matt & Mike) won the titles at One Night Stand where they defeated Extreme Hyphy Wrestlers on June 22. In late 2007 through early 2008, ECW Tag Team Champions The Hardcore Outlaws (Blaze and Jesse James) engaged in rivalry with the World Tag Team Champions The Kutter Regime (Kris Kutter and Hillbilly Jim, with the two teams exchanging words on both RAW and ECW. When Jesse James was taken off television for a short period, Genesis was installed as the second half of the ECW Tag Team Champions, referring to themselves collectively as The Dark Breed. On the December 31 edition of RAW, it was announced that at the Royal Rumble both teams would defend their titles against each other and the winning team would hold both titles. The Kutter Regime defeated The Dark Breed, and thus unified the titles into what became known as the Unified Tag Team Championship. New belts were designed to represent the championships. As the Unified Tag Team Championship, the champions could appear, and defend the titles on any WWE brand. See Also *List of ECW Tag Team Champions *Extreme Championship Wrestling Category:Tag team championships Category:Championship belts Category:Extreme Championship Wrestling Category:WWE for Extreme